The proposed $17 billion acquisition of May Department Stores Co. by Federated Department Stores Inc. will mean the end of the Robinsons-May brand and the likely loss of local jobs, but it could be months before Cincinnati-based Federated gets down to determining which stores stay and which go.

Nationwide, there are few locations where Federated and May have overlapping department stores, but in Southern California there are 28 malls where the two companies are in direct competition.

With Federated getting rid of the Robinsons-May name altogether, most of the stores will either be re-branded as Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s or simply shuttered. Another possibility would be to re-purpose the Robinsons-May stores as ancillary Macy’s stores, such as furniture outlets. A Federated spokeswoman said Monday morning that it was premature to discuss the fate of specific locations.

Locally, some closings seemed all but inevitable, leading to the prospect of layoffs. Last year, May had 8,900 employees in Los Angeles County.

Already, Federated has said it wants to achieve $450 million in cost savings by 2007, mostly by combining divisions.

“There’s still a lot of uncertainty,” said Aubie Goldenberg, a partner at Ernst & Young who specializes in retail. “When you look at a merger of this size, we don’t know what the true outcome will be.”

Besides Robinsons-May, May stores include Marshall Fields and Lord & Taylor. Federated operates Macy’s and Bloomingdales brands, among others.

Federated is paying $11 billion for May and assuming $6 billion of its debt.

While the merger will result in store closings, the effect on mall owners is likely to be limited. Already, there are reports that Kohl’s, J.C. Penney and Nordstrom might be interested in taking over whatever locations might be closed by Federated.

“A significant number of the properties where overlap occurs are dominant malls, leading us to believe that Federated would not close stores at these assets,” wrote Banc of America Securities analyst Ross Nussbaum. “Even if they did, the space could be easily re-tenanted.”

If shareholders and government regulators approve the deal, Federated will operate 950 department stores and 700 bridal and formalwear stores. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005.